Re: New life in Hell

From: Joerg Baumgartner <joe_at_toppoint.de>
Date: Fri, 13 Feb 2004 14:49:56 +0100 (CET)

Andrew Solovay

> Joerg Baumgartner <joe_at_toppoint.de> wrote:

>> An excellent point. I wonder whether the trolls really ever lost
>> fertility, or whether they gained a lesser version of fertility on
>> their flight from the Underworld. As a rule, only the Middle World
>> generates new life...

> ...although (unless I'm mistaken) Trolls believe the source of all life
> is, in fact, the Underworld. There's a myth-fragment in Trollpack
> describing the gestation of... either Aether or Yelm (don't have the
> books with me).

Aether, in Three Curious Spirits - a moral tale how the Darkness deities gained their fire powers. Featuring Argan Argar before the Birth of Aether...

> Before
> he was born, he "lay in Darkness"--and lying in Darkness meant he was in
> Hell. (The myth describes three Dark gods, Argan Argar, Xiola Umbar, and
> Zorak Zoran, coming across the unborn Light.)

> It seems to me that this means that (from the troll POV, anyway), all new
> life begins in Hell, though it may come to fruition elsewhere.

The Earth cults use the Ty Kora Tek Caves of the Dead to store the seeds of new life aka the souls of the deceased, too. I don`t know whether Earth worshippers have a flow diagram connecting the mingling of the parents` souls (the mating) with the inclusion of a soul from the afterlife. In a way, there can be no new life without the realms of the dead. But for this to happen, something has to be done in the world of the living, too (even for parthenogenic births).

Julian Lord

> Simon, Joerg :

>>> Aldryami and Mostali are different from trolls because they are
>>> relatively at home in the middle world. The trolls are creatures of
>>> hell, and the surface world is an alien realm for them in a way it
>>> isn't for Mostali, and particularly Aldryami.

>> An excellent point

> ... except that half the time (night vs. day ; cold vs. hot ; etc),
> the Inner World is controlled by the Underworld forces, and in effect
> *becomes* the underworld ...

In all but one effect - it does not become the place where the dead walk. Not usually, at least.

>> . I wonder whether the trolls really ever lost
>> fertility, or whether they gained a lesser version of fertility on their
>> flight from the Underworld. As a rule, only the Middle World generates
>> new life...

> As a rule, general rules do not apply to the Underworlds,
> many of which are just as fertile as the Inner World
> (technically, they are part of the Inner Worlds ; except
> they are ruled by otherworld entities, or whatever other
> strangeness occurs to make them underwordly ... )

I sort of acknowledged that Inner World character of some Underworld realms, but since Wonderhome coincides with the surface world court of the dead, I am not quite willing to apply this to the Trollhome part of the Underworld. Not any more since Bijiif arrived.

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End of Glorantha Digest

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